Like many, I don't always want to fire up the whole theater when watching something. Two channel audio through the TV's speakers is fine.

While I'm sure that I can figure out the easiest way to accomplish this by reading the 990 manual, I'm just wondering what others do. I was thinking that a two channel stereo downmix to the Zone 2 output routed to the TV audio inputs might do the trick, though if Zone 1 and Zone 2 are independent, I might have to suffer with the composite Zone 2 video in this case (so I can have Zone 1 off and Zone 2 on). Time to re-read the manual.

Hmm. Reading the manual suggests that the main zone AUX audio out might be ideal for sending audio to the stereo audio input on a TV for casual viewing and listening.

But, I can find no mention of whether this is a two-channel downmix or just the switched analog two-chanel audio from the selected source (requiring it to be hooked up to the 990 -- not a big deal).

I glanced back at some notes, and I believe that the zone 2 outputs are using pure analog switching - no composite/s-video conversion, and only analog inputs are supported. If there are a couple particular inputs that you are planning to use without firing the whole system up, then you could make some appropriate analog connections to facilitate the zone 2.

Yeah, having received my 990 I've run some tests and come to the same conclusion as you have, gonk.

Am/FM receiver output via the AUX2 out got sent to the TV fine, but optical SPDIF from the CD/DVD didn't.

I wonder if the 990 switches the analog lines from the same input as the digital lines to the AUX/TAPE outputs, or if I'll have to "steal" another input for the analog audio DVD output. If it's programmed right, it would use the input configuration for it's main outputs, so I could "double up" the input connections with both digital and analog audio signals.

It's too late to try now... I'll have to check that tomorrow.

Keeping in mind that zone 2 is essentially a two-channel analog pre-amp with video switching packed inside the 990, I would definitely expect to be able to run analog cables to the DVD input and get the signal through zone 2 even if the DVD input was set up for a digital input.

Hmm, if analog inputs are switched to the Zone2 preamp out, that could be used, but it would mean volume control in the 990 as well as in the TV. Not really a big deal.

I'm hoping that the analog inputs (regardless of the coax/opti/analog main zone input selection) are switched to the AUX and TAPE analog outputs. Then I could just run AUX out to the TV.

Otherwise, I suppose I could "double up" the DVD and STB outputs and run their analog lines to unused inputs on the 990 (along with svideo instead of component). Hmm, does the 990 allow assigning a component video input to more than one device input? It should.